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Friday, 27 November 2009

Homespun raggy prim Christmas Tree Tutorial

With only 27 days to go until Christmas, it's going to be full steam ahead now! I know many of you have already started to decorate for Christmas, so here's a tutorial for you.This little prim raggy tree is fairly simple to make and is a good way of using up left over strips of fabric.I chose burgundy dark green and mustard/gold homespuns for a Christmas look.

Here's what I used for the tree - its a florist's foam cone and is 9" high. (I had thought of making a cone from paper mache)All you need to do next, starting from the TOP of the cone, is apply a fairly thick layer of glue, as shown below:

Cut your first strip of fabric about 5" long. All the strips should be about 1" wide.Make sure you twist the strip quite tightly as you wind it around the cone - the over all look of the tree is better if you keep them tight and the texture appears nicer than just flat pieces of material.)

Just paint it one section at a time as believe me, your fingers will get very sticky and you will probably need to have warm soapy water and a towel close by!You will need to keep each new round up close to the one above to prevent gaps.I wanted to use alternate bands of colors on my tree so it started to look like this:

Make sure to tuck in the ends of each strip and even use a little extra glue to hold down firmly.You can press down on the strip with your thumb as you wind it around - an extra pair of hands may be needed!As you progress down toward the base of the cone, cut each new strip an inch or two longer to fit round it, though if it's short, just add another bit of the same fabric on and glue down the end well. It does require some patience with sticky fingers especiallyas you need to keep twisting the fabric as you wrap it on. :-)Here's how mine looked when I was nearly done -To top it off in Christmas tree fashion, I glued a rusty star to the top. Now you could just leave it as is but I got a twig and a small pedestal and pushed one end of the twig into the middle of the cone base to give extra height:

You could also make a trio of these trees with each one a different height. If I get another spare hour or so, I might do that myself - it would make a nice gathering on a shelf.

Hope you have a go and let me know how you get on!:-)Have a lovely weekendBest wishes

Christine~~I just love this little prim tree. What a perfect Christmas gift for the ladies in my life that are prim fans. Now to set aside the time to do this. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.Blessings, GG

Hi Christine!You dark horse! Such talent :) Love your site and your creations (I even had to start a blog just to comment) but don't be looking on it for anything yet!Does that shop have any more bowls for your prim friend? lol :DLooking forward to seeing you on Friday!Sharon x

Oh how neat! I was admiring it in the picture, wishing I had one. Thanks so much for the step by step instructions. It's not near as hard as I thought, but yes... does sound a bit sticky. I would say it's worth it though! I LOVE homespun and have lots of it. A trio of them in differing heights would be so adorable!! Thanks so much for sharing!

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful idea. I am looking forward to making the little trees while keeping the Spirit of Christmas alive all year :) i was just wishing that i could figure them out when i noticed your kind and generous tutorial. Thank you again!Marise

I found my picture of the similar tree and posted it on my blog. here is the link to ithttp://oliviaspumpkinpatch.blogspot.com/I did mine a little different by plaiting some red a green checked fabric then winding it around the styrene cone. I added a stuffed star that I had sprinkled with mica dust and I wrapped a rusty star garland around it. I got my pattern from a book by Tracy North. Love her stuff she has some nice prim things in her books. Hugs Olivia

This is SO adorable!!! Do you have these for sale anywhere?? I am not crafty at all, but I just love it!! I love the colors/fabric you chose, too!!! SUCH talent!!!! :) Merry Christmas!!!(katie_crosbie@hotmail.com)